KOALAS!

Since the Olympic Games are in Sydney, Australia this year, we thought it would be appropriate to make the koala our animal of the month for September 2000.

Koalas are marsupials. Contrary to popular belief they do not belong to the bear family, nor are they related to bears in any sense. They are not closely related to any particular animal, just the 100 or so marsupials that live in Australia.

When Australia split up from Gondwanaland about 100 million years ago its wildlife began to evolve differently than animals in other parts of the world. This produced marsupials and the many unique animals like koalas, echidnas, platypus and kangaroos which live there today!

Koalas live in Eastern Australia in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. In eastern Australia massive gum forests cover much of the land. The koalas live in the tops of the many species of Eucalypt trees. They spend much of their lives in the tops of the Eucalyptus trees so the trees are very important to their survival. They only venture to the ground to switch into another tree when the one they are feeding in is out of food.

They are extremely picky eaters. Out of roughly 50 Eucalyptus species growing in Eastern Australia, koalas will eat about 15. Each koala has its own preference of Eucalyptus species to eat and they usually only eat about 5 different species if they have the choice. This has made conservation extremely difficult, as selective foresty methods that save some species elsewhere could be even worse for koalas. they have their own favourite tree. If it gets cut down they can go into a state of shock.

After breeding season an embryo froms in the female koala. After 1-2 months it is born and comesinto its mother's pouch, where it finds a teat and begins to suck on it. It stays in its mother's pouch for two to three months before venturing out into the open. When it is four months old it begins to hang on to its mother's back instead of being in her pouch. At 6 months, the mother forces the baby to forage for food on its own. She will sometimes tolerate it to climb on her back but usually makes it walk for itself. After 7-8 months the mother drives the baby away from her. It is mating season again and the mother wants the baby to be gone. It then must find a habitat of its own. For females this is fairly easy, as most males would accept her into their colony. For males however, finding a colony is difficult, and is becoming even more difficult due largely to the fact that the gum forest habitat of the koala is rapidly dwindling. The male could get accepted into another male's colony, but this is not likely. He would have to find a colony of his own or die trying.

In many parts of Australia there are rangers who move young koalas around to other parts of the forest where no other koalas live so they can start a colony of their own. This doesn't always work though, because there aren't always rangers moving koalas where they want to go. The biggest problem facing koalas is habitat destruction. The gum forests are rapidly being cut down for lumber and paper products. That means that koalas habitat is getting smaller and smaller. Although they aren't hunted anymore, hunting used to be a major threat to koalas. From 1924-1930 approximately 2 million koala pelts were exported from Australia. That is just 6 years! The koala population before Europeans came to Australia was likely 10-15 million koalas. Today's population is between 25 and 30 thousand. That is very big drop! The united States recently classified the koala as an endangered species. It's time we all follow them. We need to protect koalas now!